As the semiconductor industry introduces new generations of integrated circuits (IC's) having higher performance and greater functionality, the density of the elements that form the IC's is increased, while the dimensions, sizes, and spacing between the individual components or elements are reduced. These device geometries having smaller dimensions are creating new manufacturing challenges. In a typical integrated circuit, there may be many metallization layers and interconnecting via layers formed in an interconnect structure. The interconnect structure connects various devices (e.g., transistors, capacitors, etc.) to form functional circuits.
During fabrication, it is necessary to form openings (sometimes referred to as cuts) and connections among metal lines to create the needed connectivity. As critical dimensions continue to shrink, this can be challenging. For example, the openings must be formed large enough to ensure the metal lines are cut and separated. However, as the pitch of the metal lines is reduced, the opening may cut neighboring lines and electrical connection may be inadvertently broken. Further, the conventional cuts/openings require a tight overlay (OVL) margin, which is difficult to achieve. However, without such tight margins, resulting interconnection structures are unreliable or unusable.
It is concluded that the conventional interconnect processing fails to adequately perform in scaled technology nodes. It is therefore desirable to develop improvements that address the aforementioned challenges.
This Discussion of the Background section is for background information only. The statements in this Discussion of the Background are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this section constitutes a prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this Discussion of the Background section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.